


earth and sun

by Fluoradine



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Gems, Gift Giving, Gifts, M/M, Pre-Recall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 21:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10885608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluoradine/pseuds/Fluoradine
Summary: Before Genji leaves to join Overwatch and start a new chapter in his ever-eventful life, he wants to make sure Zenyatta has something to remember him by.





	earth and sun

**Author's Note:**

> finally, my first genyatta on ao3! i've been wanting to write one for a while, but haven't been able to until now. to avoid any confusion, this is not my fic for the genyatta zine - that'll come later. this is just a oneshot i've had floating around in my head for a while. hope you enjoy it!
> 
> p.s.: i may have gotten a few things wrong about sunstone - i'll fix them if i find them, but i'm not really an expert on crystal healing, so uh don't expect perfection.

Genji stared down at the small orange and white stone in his hand. The sunlight made it shine as he turned it over, examining it for imperfections he didn’t want it to have. He knew Zenyatta wouldn’t be offended if the gift he gave him was not perfectly polished, but it mattered a great deal to Genji. He wouldn’t settle for giving him something less than perfect, especially when he had already had a hard enough time deciding what was good enough to give as a parting gift for his boyfriend. 

Earlier this morning, he’d walked over to the village further down the mountains to buy Zenyatta a gift for when Genji would left for Gibraltar next week. He had received word of the Overwatch recall, and had many long conversations with Zenyatta about whether he should return or not. Genji had spent many years recovering from what had happened to him during his time in Blackwatch, and hadn’t been sure about returning to the organization that had forever changed his life. It had taken many days for him to reach a decision that both him and Zenyatta knew was right. Zenyatta had told him that it would fulfill a part of him to return and tie up loose ends with old acquaintances. And Genji had agreed; he would have much to say to the old agents he used to know back when he was nothing like the man he was today.

But whatever healing he would take from it came with the cost of leaving Nepal and Zenyatta behind. Genji had been overcoming all his obstacles and doubts with his help, and now he would be dropping all the training and recovery to rejoin Overwatch. Although Zenyatta had said it was what was right, and Genji trusted Zenyatta more than anything, he did not want to leave behind the person who had taught him so much and meant so much to him. He feared that rejoining Overwatch would mean moving on, and never getting to see Zenyatta again. The thought of never getting to hear him laugh or see his array of lights glowing again was something Genji didn’t like. He simply wouldn’t settle for it. 

But, in many ways, it was too late. He had already agreed to go, and Genji wasn’t one to go back on his word. So to compensate, he had thought it would be best to give Zenyatta a gift to remember him by. When he returned to Nepal sometime in the future, hopefully Zenyatta would still have it, having remembered him as much as Genji never forgot him. He had decided on a lucky charm - a gemstone, reflective of Zenyatta’s love of precious stones and minerals. Though all the stones Genji had found while looking on the grounds of the monastery had been only pebbles, no geodes or crystals at all. That simply wasn’t good enough - Genji wanted to give Zenyatta something he couldn’t find anywhere else, something that would remind him of himself and only himself. 

So he’d entered the small shop with an array of stones set up outside, run by a woman who was wearing a bundle of grey clothes that looked like it might weigh more than herself. She had let Genji walk around the shop and touch anything he wanted as long as he didn’t knock it over while she cleaned up - it had apparently been too long since she’d had someone buy from her. 

“Really, no one comes down here anymore,” she’d remarked as Genji first saw the array of colour in the store. “Don’t be hasty with what you want to buy, ah?” 

Genji wondered why that was as he looked around - he didn’t really know where else someone might buy a gemstone, seeing as she seemed to own every stone on the mountain. The rainbow of colour was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, and the cozy yet mysterious atmosphere of the small store made him feel welcome, and intrigued by the treasure he could find in here for Zenyatta. 

Genji had admired the various rocks and geodes arranged around the shop. He was drawn in by each of them in turn - their colours and shapes were magnificent, unlike anything he’d ever found up in the mountains. But he soon realized a small problem: he knew absolutely nothing about gemstones. Zenyatta was an expert on all their properties - he knew simply by looking at a stone what its name was, where Genji had found it, and what energy it would bring to the world. Were Zenyatta here, he would probably be much more excited that Genji was, able to see thousands of properties and emotions in one room. But all Genji saw were stones, beautiful as they were, but no aura around them. 

He had been taking time to examine various crystals, holding them in his hands and seeing if they sparkled in the mid morning sunlight. He had found a few rather magnificent ones, but they were either too large for a lucky charm, or looked nothing like what Zenyatta might like. The shopkeeper had been silently dusting the larger geodes, though Genji saw her eyes travel to him every now and then, stealing glances at him as he pondered on what to take for Zenyatta’s gift. 

He had been wondering if he should ask for her help as an expert on the stones when his eyes caught onto a small orange and white stone sitting on a shelf, next to two purple ones and hidden behind a jagged brown one. Something about it drew his hand to pick it up and carefully run his metallic fingers over the surface, and hold it up to the light. As he did, Genji saw it glow like a sunset in the light. It was almost the same colour as the sun that sunk below the horizon every night at the monastery, the sight that Genji was always amazed by. And there he stood now, still in the same place as he’d been five minutes ago, examining this small stone as if it were a piece of gold.

“What stone is this?” he asked aloud, his question directed to the shopkeeper. She was dusting off a small crystal statue behind Genji, though her eyes had been craftily sneaking glimpses of him while she thought he couldn’t see. She nearly dropped her cloth when he spoke, breaking the ambient silence of the shop with his static voice. 

“Ah?” she jumped, craning her head to see what Genji was holding. He saw her squint, unable to see the tiny stone from a distance. “What do you have there?” She shuffled over to where he stood, and Genji held out the stone for her to examine. It was small enough to fit in his palm, though big enough not be mistook for a pebble. She took it from him carefully, and ran her fingers over the smooth surface as Genji had just done. 

“This is a sunstone,” she said, staring at the stone as if it would give her an answer for a burning question she had. She turned it around in her fingers, examining the edges and surface. Genji saw her mouth drop into a frown when she found no dent or cut in the rock. “Quite a lovely one, too. Where did you find this?”

“Behind another.” Genji gestured to the rainbow of gemstones sitting on the windowsill. The woman frowned once more. 

“It shouldn’t have been hidden…I am sorry you had to root around for it.” she said, displeased with her own organization of the shop. 

“No rooting was necessary,” Genji said. “Thank you for telling me.” The woman held out the sunstone, dropping it into Genji’s palm where it clicked as it fell into his metal hand. Yet she continued to stare at it, as if she was just as mesmerized by the small gem as Genji was. This, Genji found strange - she had much more spectacular stones on display, yet they had both focused on this little orange and white one, not much bigger than a chestnut. He wondered if it had an energy that drew people to it, such as some of Zenyatta’s stones supposedly did. 

The shopkeeper clicked her tongue. “I’ll leave you to yourself, then.” she said, turning to return to her cleaning that didn’t really need to be done. As she left, Genji turned the sunstone over in his hand again. It was absolutely flawless - he could feel no dents anywhere, and the light it reflected shone in accordance to its name. For a moment, he thought he’d found what he wanted, and what Zenyatta would want. 

But then he hesitated, eyes catching a glimpse of another stone across the store. Perhaps he shouldn’t rush - this was a gift for him to be remembered by, after all. It was more than a simple charm for Zenyatta to appreciate on its own. He didn’t know if the sunstone could hold his memory in its little form. Agreeing with his thoughts, Genji put the stone in one of his compartments, and continued to browse. 

Genji continued to examine the gems in the shop as the morning went on. No one else from the small village came by, leaving only him and the shopkeeper inside. She was quite friendly, and turned to a nice conversation with Genji about the various stones after she got bored of dusting the same geodes over and over again. It turned out that she had inherited all of them from her mother, who had a vast collection from over sixty years of working in geology. 

“I, myself, am much more spiritual than she was,” she’d said as Genji examined a pink and black rhodonite. “While she only saw their names and physical properties, I appreciate them mostly for their energy. Each stone is its own soul.”

“So I have heard.” Genji said as he ran his fingers over the large chunk of stone. Immediately, he found a large cut in the surface, and returned it to where it had sat. Pink was never really Zenyatta’s colour, anyway. 

“Are you a collector? Or do you heal with them?” she asked him, and Genji shook his head.

“I am neither. My friend is much more passionate about gems than I am.” he replied, feeling a little foolish for referring to Zenyatta as merely a friend. But he did not know this woman other than her quaint store of precious stones, and didn’t have time to explain everything Zenyatta was to him. If he did, he feared he wouldn’t stop talking. 

“That would be a wonderful gift,” she said, pointing out the large white geode Genji was close by. “Moonstone. It brings abundance and hope to holders, as well as stress relief, though they all do that anyways.”

Genji nodded, though he knew he did not want the moonstone. It would be too large to keep as a charm, and he might break it walking back to the monastery. For a moment, his thoughts wandered back to the sunstone sitting in his compartment. But he waved the thought off - he had to keep looking in case he found the truly perfect gem for Zenyatta. 

The shopkeeper followed Genji around for a little while longer as he browsed. He took everything he could remember into consideration as he examined the various gemstones, waiting for one of them to draw him in as the sunstone had. The shopkeeper had pointed out her favourites - a purple amethyst, a thin aquamarine, a small orthoclase, and a cluster of angel aura - but none of them made him feel the same as the small sunstone had. Eventually, she disappeared into the shop, and it became quiet once more as Genji searched for the right charm to give to Zenyatta.

Genji had lost track of the time by the time he stopped searching. The sun was much lower in the sky than it had been when he came in by now. No gem fit his criteria, and he was a little disappointed. One that looked magnificent would either be cut and dented up close, or one that was perfectly flawless would have no energy surrounding it. Despite their colour, they were bland, none of them fitting to either him or Zenyatta. 

As Genji started to lose his motivation, he knew there was only one possible option - the sunstone he had carried with him all this time, the one he’d felt pulled towards in the very beginning. 

Taking the small gem out of his compartment, Genji rolled it around between his fingers, and almost immediately felt lighter. The sun shone off of it, making it glimmer and glow like it was a bar of gold. He smiled just looking at it, and he imagined Zenyatta doing the same - looking at this small piece of sunstone and relaxing, smiling in his own way as he remembered Genji had given it to him, the one he loved had given this to him to always remember him by. Genji would have nothing better. The sunstone was perfect.

He made his way to the shopkeeper, who had been laying out jewellery on the wooden counter in boredom. “How much does this cost?” he asked her, making her jump again as he broke the silence. She stared at the sunstone in his palm.

“Seven hundred-fifty rupees,” she said. “You can have it for five hundred-fifty, if you’d like.”

“I’d hate to take that away from your business,” Genji said. “It was nice to meet you.”

“And you as well,” the shopkeeper smiled, taking the crumpled paper from Genji. “I never did get your name?”

“Genji. And you?”

“Suravee,” She folded up the money, putting it in the pocket of her coat. “Please, if you return, don’t hesitate to call me by it. Who did you say the stone was for, again?”

“Ah, for a friend of mine. I am leaving him in a few days, and thought he might like something to remember me by.” Genji said, once again rolling the sunstone between his metallic fingers. 

“That’s kind. A stone that prosperous will be a nice gift.” Suravee said. As she spoke, Genji remembered what she had mentioned about all stone having their own souls. He had forgotten that gems had spiritual properties attached to them - an important part of their significance, as Zenyatta had reminded him once. And he had no idea what sunstone’s was. 

“What do you mean by that?” he asked Suravee, wanting to know exactly what the energy was that sunstone had captivated him with. 

“The stone of the sun carries a certain warmth and light with it,” she told him. “As said in its name. If you wear it around your neck, luck is on your side. If you wear it on your hand or arm, it marks a strong and free leader. Joy and good nature are its second-strongest qualities. I find it useful when life’s beaten me down.”

“Can it be of use to memory?” Genji asked.

Suravee gave a slight nod. “It brings clarity to your mind and expands your consciousness. So, I believe it could. But any stone can be of any use in the right situation,” She smirked. “You really don’t know much about gems, do you?”

Genji shook his head. “Unfortunately not.”

“It’s all right. I’m sure your friend will love it anyway.” Suravee said, her eyes wandering once more to the sunstone in his hand. Genji held it tight. He could only hope that Zenyatta would, indeed, love it, and remember him with it always.

 

Genji clutched the sunstone in his hand as the stars shone above the monastery. He had cleaned his room of all personal belongings earlier, taking the few things he needed for his journey in a small sack. All he had really taken was his sword, a picture of him and his brother, one of Zenyatta’s harmony orbs, and the clothes he’d been wearing when he first arrived. Anything else, he found he no longer needed. In fact, as he had been rooting through his personal belongings, he realized that he hadn’t needed most of them in a full year. Much had changed since he’d met and fallen in love with Zenyatta.

Now, him and the Omnic were finishing their meditation session on the monastery roof underneath the night sky. It hadn’t been a very productive meditation session - most of it had been spent talking, a little bit had been spent kissing, and an even smaller bit had been spent silently thinking of what was yet to come. Genji was leaving for Overwatch tomorrow, hiking down the mountain and flying across the world to tie together loose ends and move on to the next chapter of his ever-eventful life. There was no doubt in his mind that this would not be the last he saw of the Nepali monastery, though leaving it still left a sour taste in his mouth. 

But it was not as sad a goodbye as Genji thought it to be. It was merely a ‘see you soon, and best of luck’ from Zenyatta, who had made absolutely clear that Genji hadn’t made any mistake in choosing to rejoin Overwatch. Despite everything, he still believed in Genji, and loved him more than anything. It had been a lovely night. Now all that was left to do was give Zenyatta his gift. 

“Before we sleep, I have something to give to you.” Genji said to Zenyatta, who was staring up at the stars absent-mindedly, his array of blue lights dim with exhaustion. He turned his head as Genji spoke.

“Do you?” he said, and Genji nodded. “How wonderful. You didn’t have to for me.”

Genji shook his head. “I wanted to. Since we will not see each other for a long time, I realized that I was afraid I might forget you. And at the same time, you’d forget me, as well.”

“I would never,” Zenyatta began, but Genji stopped him before he could go on. He loosened his grip on the sunstone, metal fingers uncoiling to reveal the small gem in his palm. Zenyatta leaned his head in to see it in the darkness, examining it closely already. Genji lifted it closer to his faceplate. 

“It’s just a lucky charm,” he said, as Zenyatta carefully took it from him. “A sunstone. I bought it in the village from someone with a rather large shop filled with stones. I know very little about their properties, but she didn’t call me an idiot and told me what this one meant.” He paused. “Do you want to know?”

“I fear I already know,” Zenyatta said. “But you can still tell me if you’d like.”

Genji sighed. “There’d be no point.” He paused once again. “You can tell it to me, if you want to.”

Zenyatta nodded. “It is of the spirit,” he began to explain. “The sun, light and warmth, good memories and free thoughts. Clarity of mind and strength of the soul. Promises to others. And stress relief, though they all do that, really.”

Genji laughed at that. “Do you already have one in your collection?”

“No. But I do, now,” Zenyatta said. “In fact, it does not deserve to be part of that. It is so much more. Especially because it is flawed.”

Genji stopped laughing. “What?” He thought the sunstone was perfect, clean of cuts and dents and anything odd. Even Suravee had told him it was magnificent, and she hadn’t seemed like she was lying. He’d thought the stone had drawn him in because of its perfection, because of its flawlessness - and now Zenyatta was informing him that it had not.

“See?” Zenyatta held the sunstone out to Genji, who peered in close to get a glimpse of what flaw he was referring to. “It is tumbled. There are specks of dirt inside of it. I assume you did not notice this?”

Genji shook his head. He knew it didn’t matter to Zenyatta if the stone was perfect or not - it had only mattered to him. And now that it wasn’t, he felt a little ashamed - but he couldn’t for too long. The emotions Zenyatta was expressing by holding the sunstone were making Genji feel proud, happy that he loved it despite its imperfections, despite the dark patches inside of it. In fact, judging by the way he’d eagerly pointed out the dirt specks to Genji, he loved it because of them. Now it was distinguishable from any other sunstone. Now, it was his.

“Don’t let it discourage you - when you return, I shall teach you more about gemstones, if you wish. They are quite interesting parts of nature, no matter how you look at them.” Zenyatta said, and Genji nodded. He would love to hear Zenyatta go on about the things he loved for hours, patiently listening and learning from him as he had done in the beginning. It would be something to look forward to in the hopefully near future. 

But there was still one thing left for Genji to say. “Can you promise me something, Zenyatta?” he asked. 

“What is it?” 

“Use it to remember me by,” Genji said, taking the hand in which Zenyatta held the sunstone. “While I’m not here. If you do happen to forget my face, at least remember that I gave you this. If it really does provide good memories, find them. You don’t have to do anything else with it. You can wear it, if you’d like. I think it’d match you, actually.” 

Zenyatta nodded slowly. He held onto Genji’s hand and the sunstone. “I promise you that. No matter how long you leave for, I could never forget you.”

The words made Genji feel warm. “I won’t be gone for long. And when I return, I’ll have a few stories to tell you.” he said, smiling.

“I look forward to them.” Zenyatta said, squeezing Genji’s hand with his own. “Thank you for the sun. It is a gift from someone I will never forget.”

They never did go back inside to sleep. Instead, they fell asleep on the roof in the cold. When the sun rose, it brought a brighter light than Genji had ever seen it bring before. And something about it reminded him of all the good things in the past, spared his fear for the future, and made him feel wonderful in the moment underneath the sun.


End file.
